Herbert Boyer

Herbert W. Boyer (born July 10, 1936 in Derry, Pennsylvania) received the 1990 National Medal of Science, and is a co-founder of Genentech. He served as Vice President of Genentech from 1976 until his retirement in 1991.^[1]

With Stanley Cohen, he did possibly the first piece of genetic engineering.^[2]

Career

Boyer was a Professor of Biochemistry from 1976 to 1991, where he discovered that genes from bacteria could be combined with genes from eukaryotes. In 1977, Boyer's laboratory and collaborators described the first-ever synthesis and expression of a peptide-coding gene.^[3] In August 1978, he produced synthetic insulin using his new transgenic genetically modified bacteria, followed in 1979 by a growth hormone.

In 1976, Boyer founded Genentech with venture capitalist Robert A. Swanson. Genentech's approach to the first synthesis of insulin beat Walter Gilbert's approach at Biogen which used genes from natural sources. Boyer built his gene from its individual nucleotides.

In 1990, Boyer and his wife Grace gave the single largest donation ($10,000,000) bestowed on the Yale School of Medicine by an individual. The Boyer Center for Molecular Medicine was named after the Boyer family in 1991.^[4][5]

In 2007, St. Vincent College announced that they had renamed the School of Natural Science, Mathematics, and Computing the Herbert W. Boyer School.^[6]

Boyer is on the Board of Scientific Governors of The Scripps Research Institute.^[7]

Awards

• 1980 the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research
• 1989 the National Medal of Technology
• 1990 the National Medal of Science from President George H. W. Bush
• 2009 CSHL Double Helix Medal Honoree Archived 2012-04-01 at the Wayback Machine

References

1. "The Pioneers of Molecular Biology: Herb Boyer". Time Magazine, March 9, 1981 cover of TIME. February 9, 2002. Archived from the original on April 6, 2010. Retrieved May 4, 2010.
2. Cohen S; Chang A; Boyer H. & Helling R. 1973. Construction of biologically functional bacterial plasmids in vitro. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 70 (11): 3240–3244
3. Expression in Escherichia coli of a chemically synthesized gene for the hormone somatostatin. Science. 198(4321):1056-63.
4. Yale and Medicine, 1951-2001: 1991-2001
5. Boyer Center Homepage
6. "Saint Vincent College announces naming of the Herbert W. Boyer School of Natural Sciences - Saint Vincent College". Archived from the original on 2007-12-31. Retrieved 2013-02-04.
7. The Scripps Research Institute